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Mount Vernon Schools To Host Saturday Conference On Immigrant Voting

MOUNT VERNON, N.Y. – The Mount Vernon Board of Education is set to continue its string of “Board President Saturday Conferences” this weekend with a discussion on a topic that causes strife nationwide: immigration.

The Mount Vernon Board of Education has been working diligently to earn the public's trust.

The Mount Vernon Board of Education has been working diligently to earn the public's trust.

Photo Credit: File

Since taking over for Judith Johnson last year, Superintendent Kenneth Hamilton has teamed with the Board of Education in an effort to regain the city’s trust and begin building ties between the community and the much-maligned school district.

Saturday’s conference will broach the topic of immigration, and whether “legal resident immigrants have a right to vote in the Mount Vernon School District elections.”

At the beginning of the academic year, school board President Elias Gootzeit announced the district would host a series of weekend conferences, once or twice a month, when members of the community and officials with the district could discuss the issues Mount Vernon faces.

According to Gootzeit, the conferences provide the district with a unique opportunity to interact with the entire community to confer about what problems plague the city and how they can best go about fixing them.

“These conferences are an opportunity to engage our community and begin important conversations that will address some of the inequalities that students and residents of Mount Vernon experience in their day-to-day lives,” he said.

Past conferences have addressed the schools budget, the future of the district and the audit committee, among other issues facing the district and schools. This week’s conference will be from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Longfellow Elementary School.

Other scheduled Saturday conferences include:

  • March 14: Dr. Suess’ ‘Horton Hears a Who? reader theatee.
  • April 18: Budget presentation.
  • May 16: Second budget presentation and a school board debate to be chaired and organized by the PTA and PTA Council.
  • June 19: “Who owns the public schools?”

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